The Backstory of Brownsville Living, why it was started, where it's been and where it's going.

"The Story of Brownsville Living"

Fort Worth Skyline Credit NA

I started Brownsville Living to promote and enhance the best things about Brownsville. It's really as simple as that. I was first introduced to this scrappy little town in 1995 during Spring Break. I stopped here and ate lunch before traveling into Matamoros. Having grown up in Fort Worth a very cosmopolitan city comparatively speaking, I didn't think much of the town. I remember we found the only decent looking restaurant we could find which no surprise served Mexican food, ate and crossed to Matamoros. Beyond that brief glimpse of this town my only knowledge preceding that experience had been hearing about it when the Mark Kilroy incident occurred.  (Fort Worth - No photo credit available)

Needless to say these early experiences of Brownsville were not more than a tiny blip on the radar of my life. Fast forward to 2001 I met a woman who had been raised here and started visiting the region.  She did not have a high opinion of the area at all. And most of her friends and the former residents I met didn't have a high opinion either. I heard frequently that there was nothing to do or see here and they would "never" move back. Naturally being a bit of a contrarian from birth it made me start wondering why they felt this way.

Brownsville -Photo by Carlos Nunez

Upon our visits to see her family I would really pay attention to the area. The family had a home on one of the more beautiful resacas in town. They also owned a lovely home at South Padre Island. We would come down and visit both properties and usually stay for a week or so. During the that time I really took in the atmosphere. I remember sitting in the back yard of the Brownsville home in December. The temperature was roughly 70 degrees. The trees I call Orchid Trees were dripping with beautiful red blooms, the water drifted lazily by carrying a beautiful assortment of ducks and other water fowl. I clearly remember thinking this place is like a hidden paradise. Why do the locals hate it so much?

From that point forward I think it was destined that I would eventually call Brownsville home. Fast forward several more years and we had our first child. My wife at the time was distraught at the fact we would have to put our son in one of the outrageously expensive daycares in Austin and it was in someone's garage. I have to admit that wasn't exactly appealing to me either. The thought of our child being raised in someone's garage just wasn't what we wanted. Seeing her despair I thought she has so much support and family in Brownsville, let's move there. Remember, this is a woman who proclaimed that she would "NEVER" move back to Brownsville. Well, in that moment of weakness she saw the value of having family near by and said "Okay, let's do it." 

Austin - Photo credit not available

Within days I had our home on the market in Austin and it sold immediately before the sign was even up. It showed once... that was when I learned the value of staging and hiring a good Realtor. But that's a story for another time. Anyhow, we moved down here and lived on the island for 6 months while we worked to get established. Almost immediately I started reading and getting involved in our community. I noticed a few common traits in my first few years here. The only thing I ever heard was negativity about Brownsville. It seemed every news paper article, blog post and person had something to bitch about. It was quite depressing. The other thing I noticed is there would be events and activities but unless you were very much in the loop you would never hear about them until the day after. That drove me crazy because I was always looking for stuff to do but there was no resource to find it. 

 Las Vegas - Photo credit not available

A few years past and we took a trip to Las Vegas. While there we encountered a social media company that promoted the positive events and activities in Las Vegas. That was the catalyst for Brownsville Living. The day we returned from the trip I came up with the concept, theme and brand and started posting content. The goal was to be a positive voice in a sea of negativity. I wanted to shine a light on the good things about our community. Our citizens must have been hungry for this because the initial response to Brownsville Living was astounding. I became somewhat of a local celebrity over night. That was not at all my intent nor did I ever imagine how large the network would get.

Naturally not everyone believed my intent was good. I suffered many viscous online attacks. This was also shocking. I couldn't comprehend why people were lashing out at me. But shortly I figured out why. They believed I had political aspirations and I did in fact end up getting into a battle with a local Commissioner. He was convinced that I represented "Special Interests". I had made an appearance during Public Comment at City Hall in 2010 to simply ask why they spend 0 dollars on our amazing historic downtown but dump millions and millions into the Brownsville Sports Park. On that day the city had one main item on the agenda. They were looking to give $3 million more to the Sports Park on top of an already insanely over budget project and they had just denied giving $150,000 to the Downtown Brownsville Facade Improvement Grant.

Photo by Carlos Nunez

I came somewhat prepared all be it unintentionally. I had been reading about the Sports Park for years and I admit I was very frustrated about it but it was not my intent to create a problem or block the CD. I just wanted to point out the imbalance that they would deny $150,000 for downtown which by the way is the second most historic area in Texas and they were going to give another $3 million to the Sports Park which to date and not proved any reasonable ROI. I presented a few facts that could not by countered by any of Commissioners or the GBIC Officer. At that point I was verbally attacked by the Commissioner who considered the Sports Park his legacy. I had no idea what I had kicked off... I guess when you mess with millions of dollars you open yourself to attack. Almost overnight I had enemies whom supported this Commissioner and his agenda with a vigilance. I was attacked and smeared on the blogs, Facebook and in the rumor mills.

At that point in life I was the type who would respond viscously to such attacks regardless of the damage it could do to myself or my family. I went after this commissioner and the corruption in our city with a vengeance. I would get into raging debates with the Commissioner, the Mayor and their cronies. I waged war... I managed a campaign against this Commissioner and it was a historic write-in vote. We won... but in the process I destroyed many relationships and goodwill I had created. My business was destroyed and it took me years to rebuild it. Looking back I am glad I did it but I would not do it again. The ultimate effect on my life was very negative.

During all this I remained loyal and dedicated to the mission of Brownsville Living. No matter how intense our political debates got I never took the fight to Brownsville Living. I never campaigned for my own candidate nor allowed anyone else to campaign on BL or at our events. I was determined to keep Brownsville Living a positive place. It was effected somewhat but overall the brand and mission came out unscathed.

Brownsville Living has now been around for almost 7 years! It's hard to believe it has survived. It has survived many changes in my life including a divorce, growing children and changing priorities. It survived because it helped me continue to see the positive in life even when I really had trouble seeing it myself.  Except for a brief period of when I was dealing with a wife and a mother who were both battling cancer I kept on posting the good things about our community. It gave me a purpose and something to do other than work and dealing with the pressures of life.

Today Brownsville Living is still going strong. It's not the shiny new toy anymore. And now there are many other positive focused blogs, networks and people posting good things about our community. I like to think BL had something to do with that. I feel like this page made it okay to be gungho about Brownsville. Now I see people posting positive articles, events and activities all the time. It almost has made the concept obsolete. However, I still see a need for it as a hub for positive news and events. I think it is has become somewhat of a staple. People just expect to get positive content from BL.

So all that being said, I plan to continue informing the community about the good things happening in our town. I also want to get back to
creating some good content instead of just reposting articles and events. Frankly I don't know if anyone will read it but I hope to start posting positive original blog articles and content on a somewhat regular basis. I don't think it's enough just to share content... I have to create new content that exposes and shines the light on the good of our community. Rest easy, I don't plan to be this long winded on future posts but I felt this one was necessary to kick off this new phase of BL. I needed to establish a base and go from there. So stand by for the good and please feel free to suggest stories, contribute articles and Be part of it! 

Craig Grove

Founder Brownsville Living est. 2010

Sponsored by:
Grove Realty Team